Electrical contact terminal which can be mated with an identical terminal or with a dissimilar terminal

ABSTRACT

Electrical contact terminal comprises channel-shaped body portion and contact spring portions. The spring portions extend centrally from the sidewalls of the body portion, are reversely bent inwardly towards each other, and then extend rearwardly towards the axis of the body portion. The terminal can be mated with an identical terminal or with certain dissimilar terminals.

United States Patent Carter et al.

[ Nov. 5, 1974 [22] Filed:

[ ELECTRICAL CONTACT TERMINAL WHICH CAN BE MATED WITH AN IDENTICALTERMINAL OR WITH A DISSIMILAR TERMINAL [75] Inventors: Clyde ThomasCarter,

Shermansdale; Homer Ernst Henschen, Carlisle, both of Pa.

[73] Assignee: AMP Incorporated, Harrisburg, Pa.

May 4, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 357,429

Related 05. Application Data [62] Division of Ser. No. 128,439, March26, 1971, Pat.

521 U.S. Cl. 339 47, 3397258 R [51] Int. Cl [58] Field of Search339/47-49,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS v 3,047,831 7/1962Majewski...- 339/258 P X 3,173,737 3/1965 Kinkaid et al 339/176 MP3,208,030 9/1965 Evans et a1 339/47 R 3,273,109 9/1966 Moulin 339/217 S3,335,393 8/1967 Anderson 339/176 MP X 3,656,093 4/1972 Kincaid 1.339/217 S 3,713,080 1/1973 Kennedy 339/258 R Primary Examiner-Paul R.Gilliam Assistant Examiner-Terre1l P. Lewis Attorney, Agent, orFirm-Frederick W. Raring; Jay L. I

Seitchik; William J. Keating [57] ABSTRACT Electrical contact terminalcomprises channel-shaped body portion and contact spring portions. Thespring portions extend centrally from the sidewalls of the body portion,are reversely bent inwardly towards each other, and then extendrearwardly towards the axis of the body portion. The terminal can bemated with an identical terminal or with certain dissimilar terminals. II

3 Claims, Drawing Figures ELECTRICAL CONTACT TERMINAL WHICH CAN BE MATEDWITH AN IDENTICAL TERMINAL OR WITH A DISSIMILAR TERMINAL BACKGROUND ANDSPECIFICATION I This application is a division of application Ser. No.128,439 filed Mar. 26, I971, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,525 which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety.

IN THEIDRAWING:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a contact terminal in accordance withthe invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view of two terminals in accordance with the inventioncoupled to each other:

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a known type of contact terminal withwhich terminals in accordance with the instant invention can be coupled.

FIG. 4 is a side view of a terminal in accordance with the inventioncoupled to a terminal of the type shown in FIG. 3.

A terminal 2 in accordance with the invention (FIG. I) comprises achannel-shaped body portion 4 having a web 6 and sidewalls 8. A lance 10is struck from the web 6 to retain the terminal in a cavity in a housingas described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,525. Contact springs 12 extend fromeach of the sidewalls 8, each spring comprising a planar extension 14 ofits respective sidewall which is reversely bent at 16 so that the endportions 18 extend rearwardly and towards the axis of the body portion4. The ends of the portions 18 are curled away from the axis of the bodyportion as shown at 20.

i It will be noted that the extensions 14 are somewhat more narrow thanthe sidewalls 8 and extend centrally from these sidewalls, a structuralfeature which permits terminals in accordance with the invention to bemated with identical terminals, to be mounted in housings as describedin U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,525, and to be mated with dissimilar terminals asdescribed below. The terminal 2 is secured to a conductor 26 by crimpedconnections 22 and 24 for the conducting core and the insulation of thewire respectively.

The terminal in accordance with the invention is mated with an identicalterminal as shown in FIG. 2. The two terminals are disposed in opposedrelationship with their axes offset and with their web portions 6 in thesame plane. The terminals are then moved towards each other to thepositions shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 3 shows a terminal 28 of a type disclosed and claimed in the U.S.patent to Evans et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,208,030. This terminal comprisesa generally L- shaped frame section 30 having a base 34 and a sidewall32. The base 34 has a serpentine extension which is of reduced width at38 adjacent to the base. The section 38 is reversely bent at 40 todefine an intermediate fold section 42 which fairs to an increased widthand which extends rearwardly in spaced relationship to the base 34. Theintermediate fold is reversely bent at 44 to provide a final fold 46which extends past the leading end of the L-shaped frame section. Thisfinal fold is upwardly turned at its end 48 to facilitate coupling witha complementary terminal. An offset lug or tab 52 is provided on arearwardly extending arm 50 which is integral with the sidewall 32 andU-shaped crimp portions 54, 56 are provided to crimp the terminal onto aconductor.

A terminal 2 in accordance with the instant invention can be coupled toa terminal 28 by positioning the terminals in opposed offsetrelationship such that when they are moved towards each other, the base34 and the intermediate fold 42 of the terminal 28 will move between thesprings 12 of the terminal 2. The final'fold 46 of the terminal 2 willthen be against the outside surface of the upper sidewall 8 as shown. Itshould benoted that the planes of the side 32 of the terminal 28 and theweb 6 of the terminal 2 are spaced from each -tors with terminalstherein in accordance with the instant invention can thus be coupled toa variety of types of connectors used on the-computer.

U.S. Pat. No. 3,732,525 discloses one suitable form of connector housingfor use with contact terminals in accordance with the invention.

What is claimed is:

1. An electrical terminal which is adapted to be disengageably coupledwith an identical terminal or with I a dissimilar terminal, saidterminal comprising:

a substantially flat web having sidewalls extending from thelongitudinal edges thereof, means on said terminal at one end of saidweb for securing said terminal to an electrical conductor,

a pair of contact springs on said terminal at the other end thereof,each of said contact springs comprising an extension on one of saidsidewalls, each of said springs projecting co-planarly from itsrespective sidewall and being reversely bent and extending reverselyinwardly and between said sidewalls, said springs each having a widthwhich is less than the width of said sidewalls and said springsextending centrally from the forward ends of said sidewalls so that thesides of said springs are spaced from the edges of said sidewalls arespaced from said web, the reversely extending end portions of saidsprings extending convergently towards the longitudinal axis of saidterminal and a retention lance struck from said web, said lanceextending obliquely from said web between said sidewalls, and towardssaid one end whereby, said terminal and an identical terminal can beengaged with each other upon positioning said terminals in opposedaxially offset relationship with the webs of said terminal and saidcoplanar terminal in a common plane so that said terminal on saididentical terminal can be moved into engagement with each other with oneside- 3. A pair of electrical contact terminals disengageably coupled toeach other, the first terminal of said pair comprising:

a web portion having sidewalls extending from the longitudinal edgesthereof, said web and sidewalls defining a generally U-shapedcross-section, said web being secured to a conductor at one end thereof,

a pair of contact springs on said terminal at the other end thereof,each of said contact springs comprising a planar extension of one ofsaid sidewalls, said springs extending forwardly from said sidewalls andbeing reversely bent, the end portions of said springs extendingrearwardly towards said one end and converging towards the axis of saidterminal,

said second terminal comprising:

a frame section means on said frame at one end thereof securing saidframe to an electrical conductor,

a reduced width extension projecting from said frame at the other endthereof, said reduced width extension being reversely bent forwardly ofsaid frame to define an intermediate fold extending rearwardly towardssaid one end of said frame section, said intermediate fold beingreversely bent to define a final fold extending towards and past saidother end of said frame,

said reduced width extension and said intermediate fold of said secondterminal extending between the opposed surfaces of said contact springsof said first terminal, and one of said contact springs and one of saidsidewalls of said first terminal being received between saidintermediate fold and saidfinal fold of said second terminal.

1. An electrical terminal which is adapted to be disengageably coupled with an identical terminal or with a dissimilar terminal, said terminal comprising: a substantially flat web having sidewalls extending from the longitudinal edges thereof, means on said terminal at one end of said web for securing said terminal to an electrical conductor, a pair of contact springs on said terminal at the other end thereof, each of said contact springs comprising an extension on one of said sidewalls, each of said springs projecting coplanarly from its respective sidewall and being reversely bent and extending reversely inwardly and between said sidewalls, said springs each having a width which is less than the width of said sidewalls and said springs extending centrally from the forward ends of said sidewalls so that the sides of said springs are spaced from the edges of said sidewalls are spaced from said web, the reversely extending end portions of said springs extending convergently towards the longitudinal axis of said terminal and a retention lance struck from said web, said lance extending obliquely from said web between said sidewalls, and towards said one end whereby, said terminal and an identical terminal can be engaged with each other upon positioning said terminals in opposed axially offset relationship with the webs of said terminal and said coplanar terminal in a common plane so that said terminal on said identical terminal can be moved into engagement with each other with one sidewall and one contact spring of each terminal extending between the two contact springs of the other terminal.
 2. An electrical terminal as set forth in claim 1 including stop means comprising a forwardly facing shoulder on one of said sidewalls for engagement with a stop shoulder in a contact receiving cavity.
 3. A pair of electrical contact terminals disengageably coupled to each other, the first terminal of said pair comprising: a web portion having sidewalls extending from the longitudinal edges thereof, said web and sidewalls defining a generally U-shaped cross-section, said web being secured to a conductor at one end thereof, a pair of contact springs on said terminal at the oTher end thereof, each of said contact springs comprising a planar extension of one of said sidewalls, said springs extending forwardly from said sidewalls and being reversely bent, the end portions of said springs extending rearwardly towards said one end and converging towards the axis of said terminal, said second terminal comprising: a frame section means on said frame at one end thereof securing said frame to an electrical conductor, a reduced width extension projecting from said frame at the other end thereof, said reduced width extension being reversely bent forwardly of said frame to define an intermediate fold extending rearwardly towards said one end of said frame section, said intermediate fold being reversely bent to define a final fold extending towards and past said other end of said frame, said reduced width extension and said intermediate fold of said second terminal extending between the opposed surfaces of said contact springs of said first terminal, and one of said contact springs and one of said sidewalls of said first terminal being received between said intermediate fold and said final fold of said second terminal. 